Trying Teen Times – the grown up one – Part the Fifth - Cars

A couple of years ago #Boychild wanted a car, and we made him save his hard-earned cash for one. It was only a 'bomb', and was never going to last the distance. To be honest we paid half the cost and insisted that he have at least 3rd party insurance, and undertake a defensive driving course.

As an aside you get no discount whatsoever for doing a defensive driving course, which seems wrong. He's had one accident where he bumped into someone and we settled for cash.

We've had to buy tires, and a battery, and some rust work fixed up a bit, oh and he's had the brakes fixed.

Owning a boat would be cheaper!

Today it died. It appears to my un-mechanical eye that the head gasket has failed and that'll be terminal, since the cost of fixing that would be more than the car costs, or owes us. Madness.

The difficult part of this as a parent is that #Boychild is currently in-between gigs, i.e. he's unemployed at this present moment in time (and that's a whole other story). And he does have some of a social life, friends he visits and a long time girlfriend who lives way way over the other side of town.

Public transport is a bit of a joke and would add multiple hours of travel time onto a simple journey. Sure he can walk locally and get the bus where he knows he has to be where he has to be, but the trauma of going to self-reliant to public transport is a big ask.

The dilemma then, as a parent, is that we need to encourage said #Boychild his independence, and to encourage him to fly the nest and venture on his own two feet. Not having his own self-reliance and looking for a job is a bit of a handicap.

So once again I find my laser-eye surgery slipping further from my grasp as we (MrsPdubyah and me) are sort of resigned to furnishing a replacement set of wheels.

It just never ends.